Festival guests

Filmmakers are the lifeblood of the Festival and we are delighted to welcome our filmmaker guests to attend screenings for introductions and/or Q&A sessions with the audience.

Below is a list of people we are expecting to welcome to talk about their film. Filmmaker schedules are subject to change, and not all our guests are able to attend all their screenings. Whichever screening you attend we hope you enjoy the LFF experience.

The Favourite
His third English-language film in four years sees Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) on rollicking, virtuoso form with Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz revelling in the wit of his royal court life.

The Front Runner
Hugh Jackman leads this pulsing political drama from director Jason Reitman (Tully, Juno, Up in the Air) detailing a watershed moment for the American press in its coverage of political life.

Director Jason Reitman joined by Hugh Jackman

Life Itself
The heartrending complexities of life are embraced in a multi-layered love story from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman.

Director Dan Fogelman joined by cast: Laia Costa, Olivia Cooke

Outlaw King
Scotland battles for its soul against England, as David Mackenzie’s gutsy historical drama brings underdog Robert the Bruce thrillingly to life.

Director David Mackenzie joined by cast: Billy Howle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

A Private War
Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, City of Ghosts) makes a striking dramatic debut with this pulse-racing biopic of The Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike), killed in 2012 whilst reporting from Syria.

Widows
Academy Award® winner and BFI Fellow Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Hunger, Shame) opens the Festival in pulsating style with this female-fuelled heist thriller that features a cast to die for.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Two decades in the making, Terry Gilliam’s wildly imaginative Cervantes adaptation is finally with us, and it’s everything we have come to expect from this visionary filmmaker.

Fahrenheit 11/9
One of North American culture’s most outspoken filmmakers, Michael Moore, turns his sights on one of the most controversial figures of our time: Donald Trump.

Director Michael Moore

The Hate U Give
This powerful adaptation of Angie Thomas’ YA novel stars Amandla Stenberg as a teenager who witnesses the fatal police shooting of her childhood friend.

Director George Tillman Jr. joined by cast Amandla Stenberg and author Angie Thomas

Make Me Up
Rachel Maclean follows her Venice Biennale piece Spite Your Face with a daring new film that incisively deconstructs art history’s myth of feminine beauty with a savage, satirical blade.

Director Rachel Maclean

Out of Blue
Carol Morley (Dreams of a Life and The Falling) returns to LFF with wonderfully stylised, offbeat noir thriller about a murder investigation and multiple realities.

Director Carol Morley joined by Patricia Clarkson

Peterloo
Mike Leigh orchestrates a superb ensemble cast in this rousing tale of working class uprising and its violent suppression in Manchester in 1819.

Director Mike Leigh

Rafiki
Romantic sparks fly between the daughters of two opposing politicians in Wanuri Kahiu’s neon-bright story of forbidden love in Kenya.

Director Wanuri Kahiu

They Shall Not Grow Old
On the centenary of the First World War, Academy Award®-winner Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) presents the world premiere of an extraordinary new work, revealing the Great War as you have never seen it.

Director Peter Jackson

Official Competition

Birds of Passage (Pájaros de verano)
The team behind Embrace of the Serpent chart the thrilling rise and fall of the indigenous Wayuu clan in remote Colombia.

Director Ciro Guerra

Destroyer
Nicole Kidman is astonishing – and almost unrecognisable – as a jaded police detective haunted by her past in Karyn Kusama’s brooding thriller.

Director Karyn Kusama joined by cast Nicole Kidman

Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice)
Alice Rohrwacher follows The Wonders with a delightfully singular time and genre-bending rumination on the fate of innocence when faced with corruption and greed.

Director Alice Rohrwacher

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.
A pared-down approach shows off a quieter side to Ben Wheatley’s prodigious talent in this poignantly funny and razor-sharp observation of English family dysfunction.

The Old Man and the Gun
David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story) brings his distinctive vision to this ‘mostly true’ account of the later years of a gentleman bank-robber, played by Robert Redford.

Sunset (Napszállta)
László Nemes first film Son of Saul (Official Competiton, LFF 2015) debuted in competition at Cannes before winning the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®. But Nemes doesn’t rest on his laurels with this feverishly ambitious second feature.

Director László Nemes

Too Late to Die Young (Tarde para morir joven)
After Pinochet’s fall, three youngsters drive up to a woodland commune below the Andes. The trip finds them questioning their life in this woozily gorgeous evocation of a Chilean summer.

Director Dominga Sotomayor

First Feature Competition

The Chambermaid (La Camarista)
Actor-turned-director Lila Avilés provides an engaging, behind-closed-doors look at the working environment of a chambermaid in one of Mexico City’s most luxurious hotels.

Cast Gabriela Castrol – TBC

The Day I Lost My Shadow
Soudade Kaadan’s moving drama unfolds in war-torn Syria, where a woman travels to the outskirts of Damascus and witnesses the fate of her countrypeople.

Director Soudade Kaadan

Holiday
A lavish trip to the Turkish Riviera goes horribly awry in this disturbing tale of power, exploitation and complicity.

Director Isabella Eklöf

Journey to a Mother’s Room (Viaje al cuarto de una madre)
The sense of loss experienced by a mother and daughter is thoughtfully conveyed in this intimate, tender drama from first-time director Celia Rico Clavellino.

Director Celia Rico Clavellino

Only You
Rising stars Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country) and Laia Costa (Victoria) sizzle in this refreshingly honest romantic drama.

Director Harry Wootliff, joined by cast Laia Costa and Josh O’Connor

Ray & Liz
In this astonishingly personal film, Richard Billingham delves into his Black Country upbringing to recreate visceral family memories and desperate living in Thatcher’s Britain.

Documentary Competition

Dream Away
Stunning and surreal, this hybrid documentary finds a group of hotel staff reflecting on their life, hopes and dreams in a deserted Egyptian holiday resort.

Directors Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke

Evelyn
Following his Oscar-nominated Virunga, Orlando von Einsiedel turns his camera on his own family as they attempt to cope with a devastating loss.

Director Orlando von Einsiedel

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (L’Empire de la perfection)
Mastery, showmanship and the art of filming tennis are laid bare in an entertaining, innovative archive documentary that’s like no sports film you’ve seen.

Putin’s Witnesses (Svideteli Putina)
Based on material he shot of Yeltsin, Gorbachev and Putin in 1999-2000, Vitaly Mansky’s film is both an extraordinary portrait and a compelling historical document.

Theatre of War (Teatro de guerra)
Six veterans from the Falklands/Malvinas conflict grapple with how to present a difficult past in this debut hybrid film from Argentine writer, musician and director Lola Arias.

Tehran: City of Love
Pitch-perfect deadpan humour helps paint a picture of Tehran as you’ve never seen it before, heralding an exciting new voice in contemporary Iranian cinema.

Director / Writer Ali Jaberansari

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
A critical and commercial success in the US, this entrancing documentary focuses on Fred Rogers, the beloved children’s TV presenter who redefined entertainment for the young.

Director Morgan Neville

Debate

Angelo
The powerful story of Angelo Soliman, a forced Europeanised African who makes his way through Viennese society in the early 18th century without ever belonging.

Director Markus Schleinzer joined by cast Larisa Faber

Freedom Fields
Charting six years of Libya’s nascent women’s football scene – a journey never short of obstacles – Freedom Fields celebrates the determination of an incredible team.

House of My Fathers
A surreal and disturbing tale centred on two divided villages in a civil war where women are unable to conceive and a remedy is desperately sought.

Director Suba Sivakumaran

Non-Fiction
Juliette Binoche and Guillaume Canet lead the cast in Olivier Assayas’ latest film, which is a wryly comic look at the quandaries of the publishing world.

Director Olivier Assayas and cast Vincent Macaigne

I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (Îmi este indiferent daca în istorie vom intra ca barbari)
Radu Jude, the celebrated director of Aferim!, Scarred Hearts and The Dead Nation, returns with another controversial and illuminating foray into the darker side of Romania’s history.

Director Radu Jude

An Impossible Love (Un amour impossible)
Rising star Virginie Efira headlines Catherine Corsini’s powerful, moving drama about how the torments of love are carried on from generation to generation.

Director Catherine Corsini

The Kindergarten Teacher
Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a career-best performance as a kindergarten teacher who finds herself in an ethical quagmire after discovering the poetic talents of a precocious student.

Director Sara Colangelo joined by cast Maggie Gyllenhaal

Rosie
A moving and fiercely gripping response to Ireland’s current housing crisis, Rosie tells the story of a Dublin family seeking a roof for the night.

Styx
A woman’s solo sailing journey turns into a deadly serious ethical dilemma in this unusual and taut political allegory.

Director Wolfgang Fischer

This Teacher
A reunion between two childhood friends goes awry in this disquieting portrait of a young Muslim woman visiting New York for the first time.

Director Mark Jackson

Unsettling
When a documentary filmmaker interviews young Israelis about their settlement in the West Bank, the results are an urgent film of revealing and sometimes challenging conversations.

Director Iris Zaki

Utøya – July 22 (Utøya 22. juli)
Unfolding in real time in a single, devastating 72-minute take, Erik Poppe delivers a harrowing reconstruction of the massacre of 69 young people by Anders Behring Breivik.

Director Erik Poppe

The Vice of Hope (Il vizio della speranza)
This is a gritty, gripping and ultimately uplifting depiction of a woman desperately striving to escape a life of vice and criminality.

Director Edoardo De Angelis and cast Giuseppina Turco

Yours in Sisterhood
Women across the US give voice to letters sent by readers to a feminist magazine in the 1970s, in this galvanizing and elegantly assembled documentary.

Director / Producer / Camera / Editor Irene Lusztig

Laugh

Amra and the Second Marriage
When a middle-aged housewife learns her husband will take a second, younger spouse, she’s forced into drastic measures in this radical Saudi Arabian black comedy.

Director Mahmoud Sabbagh joined by cast Alshaima’a Tayeb

Benjamin
In Simon Amstell’s affecting, bittersweet comedy, a rising young filmmaker is thrown into emotional turmoil by a burgeoning romance and the upcoming premiere of his second feature.

The Breaker Upperers
This rambunctious New Zealand comedy finds two women running a relationship break-up service and the new client who jeopardises their professional and personal partnership.

Director Madeleine Sami joined by cast Ana Scotney

Crystal Swan (Khrustal)
In mid-1990s Belarus, a mistake on a DJ’s forged American visa application forces some desperate cover-up attempts in this tough and tender comedy.

Director Darya Zhuk

Florianopolis Dream (Sueño Florianópolis)
A family holiday to a popular Brazilian beach resort doesn’t go quite as planned in this wry Argentine comedy from writer-director Ana Katz.

Director Ana Katz

I Feel Good
French anarcho-japesters Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern (Aaltra, Mammuth) return with a satire about dreams and delusions, starring Jean Dujardin as a man on a misguided mission.

Producer Marc Dujardin

Sometimes Always Never
Bill Nighy, Sam Riley and Alice Lowe star in this stylish and heartfelt comedy-drama about a Scrabble-obsessed tailor searching for a lost son.

Director Carl Hunter joined by cast Bill Nighy and Sam Riley

Sorry to Bother You
A mild-mannered call centre operator whizzes up the corporate ladder after he discovers a unique ability to adopt a “white voice” in writer-director Boots Riley's breathlessly inventive satire.

Director Boots Riley

Support the Girls
Andrew Bujalski serves up a big-hearted comedy with his day-in-the-life look at Double Whammies – a Hooters-style bar and its tight-knit, all-female staff.

Director Andrew Bujalski

That Time of Year (Den tid på året)
Paprika Steen’s third foray behind the camera serves up a delectably funny slice of Christmas cheer, with The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl sporting a truly outrageous perm.

Director Paprika Steen joined by cast Sofie Gråbøl, Lars Brygmann

Two Plains & a Fancy
The world’s first psychedelic ‘Spa Western’ is a witty, trippy and discursively delightful jaunt across Colorado, featuring a fabulous cast that includes Jeune Femme’s Laetitia Dosch.

Directors Whitney Horn and Lev Kalman

Woman at War (Kona fer í stríð)
Director Benedikt Erlingsson’s follow-up to the eccentric comedy Of Horses and Men is a similar genre-fluid trip, playfully steeped in Iceland’s heritage and landscape.

Director Benedikt Erlingsson

Dare

aKasha
With his striking, gently comedic debut, set amidst an endless war in his beloved country, hajooj kuka announces himself as one of Sudan’s most unique cinematic voices.

Director hajooj kuka

Chained for Life
Made by and starring disfigured people, Aaron Schimberg’s dextrous, darkly comedic film-within-a-film makes you think about cinematic representation without offering simple resolutions.

Director Aaron Schimberg joined by cast Adam Pearson

Consequences (Posledice)
A teenage tearaway is forced to face up to his actions, and confront his burgeoning sexuality, in this provocative Slovenian coming-of-age tale.

Director Darko Štante joined by cast Gašper Markun, Timon Šturbejn

The Dead and the Others (Chuva é cantoria na aldeia dos mortos)
Set in the indigenous Krahô community of Pedra Branca in Brazil, this atmospheric, visually poetic work depicts a young man’s realisation that he is in possession of shamanic gifts.

Director João Salaviza

Dogman
Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone presents a masterful tale of twisted friendship, not-so-petty crime and revenge, set in a seedy coastal town on the outskirts of Rome.

Director Matteo Garrone

The Flower (La flor)
A bold and beguiling cinematic adventure on a truly epic scale structured across three parts and six very different narrative episodes.

Cast Elisa Carricajo

The Green Fog
Guy Maddin and brothers Evan and Galen Johnson remake Vertigo, albeit with clips from other people’s films, in a treasurable magpie collage.

Directors Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin

Ladyworld
Welcome to Ladyworld, a shadowy dwelling where tensions run high and nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Director Amanda Kramer

Lizzie
Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart captivate in this bodice-ripping retelling of the strange and fascinating case of Lizzie Borden.

Director Craig William Macneill

Nancy
Andrea Riseborough is extraordinary in this disquieting drama about a woman convinced that she was kidnapped as a child and might have found her real parents.

Director Christina Choe joined by cast / producer Andrea Riseborough

Petra
In his most accessible film to date, acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Jaime Rosales tells the tale of a morbidly dysfunctional family. Petra has never known the identity of her father.

Director Jaime Rosales

Quién te cantará
This stylish, elegant and enigmatic feature by one of Spain’s most imaginative directors explores the notion of reality, imitation and artistic creation.

Cast Najwa Nimri

Sauvage
The daily misfortunes of a lonesome rent boy are laid bare in this tough but tender portrait of life on the fringes of society.

Director Camille Vidal-Naquet joined by cast Félix Maritaud

Sticks and Stones (Brakland)
Martin Skovbjerg’s ambitious directorial debut offers a timely and provocative take on toxic friendship and the destructive power of extreme masculinity.

Profile
An undercover journalist investigates ISIS recruitment in this wickedly effective suspense story that unfolds entirely on a computer screen.

Director Timur Bekmambetov

The Quake (Skjelvet)
Could reports of subterranean tremors beneath the city of Oslo predict a catastrophic earthquake is imminent? This sequel to The Wave (LFF 2015) is another tension-filled, high-stakes geo-thriller.

Director John Andreas Anderson

Sew the Winter to My Skin
Confirming the promise he showed with his powerful Of Good Report (LFF 2013), Jahmil XT Qubeka delivers a superb thriller based on a true story.

Director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka

Cult

All The Gods In The Sky (Tous les dieux du ciel)
Fans of New French Extremity take note, this mind-bending slice of transgressive perversity might just be the most outré horror film of the year.

Director Quarxx

Cam
An erotic webcam performer is plunged into a nightmarish world of duplicity and fear in this provocative techno-shocker.

Director Daniel Goldhaber

The Cannibal Club (O Clube dos Canibas)
The wealthy elite feed off the lower classes in a deliciously twisted Brazilian social satire that’s definitely not for the squeamish.

Producer Ticiana Augusto Lima

Dragged Across Concrete
As brutal and uncompromising as its title would suggest, the third feature from S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99) is another instant classic.

Director S. Craig Zahler joined by cast Tory Kittles

Duplicate
The peculiar story of two identical young men unfolds in this imaginative, low-key sci-fi fable featuring Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort.

Director Bill Oliver

Knife + Heart (Un couteau dans le coeur)
If you only see one arthouse slasher movie set in the gay porn industry this year, you had better make sure it’s this one.

Director Yann Gonzalez

Lords of Chaos
The incredible true story of the Norwegian black-metal scene in the early 1990s is brought vividly to the screen by Jonas Åkerlund.

Director Jonas Åkerlund

Mandy
Nicolas Cage gives perhaps his most unhinged performance yet in this wild, psychedelic slice of ultra-violence for the ages.

Director Panos Cosmatos

The Nightshifter (Morto Não Fala)
A morgue worker breaks the unspoken code of the dead, with terrifying consequences, in this evocative and idiosyncratic Brazilian chiller.

Director Dennison Ramalho

School’s Out (L’ heure de la sortie)
A precocious gang of unnervingly smart teens appear to be harbouring a dark and dangerous secret in this elusive French enigma.

Director Sébastien Marnier

Journey

Arctic
Mads Mikkelsen astounds in this gripping tale of one man’s gruelling fight for survival against the elements.

Director Joe Penna

Celeste
Radha Mitchell stars in this humid, atmospheric drama that explores the relationship between a troubled opera singer and her adult stepson, set deep in the Queensland rainforest.

Holy Tour (La Grande messe)
It’s summer. The Tour de France is coming and senior fans arrive in their camper vans in this endearing documentary that revels in its visual humour.

Directors Méryl Fortunat-Rossi and Valéry Rosier

Keep Going (Continuer)
The director of After Love ventures into new territory with a drama about a mother and son taking to horseback in search of reconciliation.

Director Joachim Lafosse

Maya
Mia Hansen-Løve (Things to Come, Eden) crafts a beguiling, India-set road movie about a French journalist recovering from severe PTSD, following his abduction in Syria.

Director Mia Hansen-Love

Miriam Lies (Miriam Miente)
A quinceañera celebration is nothing but nerve-racking for teenage Miriam, in this nuanced film that tackles race and class tensions in the Dominican Republic.

Directors Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada

Monrovia, Indiana
This small town in Indiana, a traditionally Republican state, known as the Crossroads of America is subject to documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s treatment.

Director Frederick Wiseman

Namdev Bhau in Search of Silence (Namdev Bhau)
In this endearing black comedy, a 65-year-old who can’t take noisy Mumbai anymore sets off on a thwarted quest for Himalayan silence.

Director Dar Gai

They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
This scintillating documentary, which features a wealth of archive footage and contemporary interviews, tells the little-known story of Orson Welles’ unfinished film The Other Side of The Wind.

Bergman – A Year in the Life (Bergman – ett år, ett liv)
This fascinating and unflinching study of the brilliance of Ingmar Bergman’s extraordinary career, is crafted around one of his most prolific and creatively fruitful years.

Director Jane Magnusson

Blaze
Directed by Ethan Hawke, this biopic of folk singer Blaze Foley is a love letter to musicians everywhere and to the poetics of drunken songwriters as cowboy outlaws.

Director Ethan Hawke

Five Men and a Caravaggio
Acclaimed writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo delivers another deeply intelligent and idiosyncratic essay, located between contemporary China and post-Brexit referendum London.

Director Xiaolu Guo joined by cast Saleh Addonia, Simon De Reyer

Manto
Acclaimed filmmaker Nandita Das returns to the Festival with an intelligent biopic that might be set in 1947, but holds up a mirror to contemporary issues in South Asia.

Director Nandita Das

Mari
Modern dance is an evocative narrative tool in Georgia Parris’ debut, which investigates a young woman’s identity and the complex relationship she has with her mother and sister.

Director Georgia Parris

Mr Soul!
This is a heartfelt and politically engaged profile of Ellis Haizlip, the openly gay host of the ground breaking PBS all-black variety show SOUL!

Director Melissa Haizlip

No Ifs or Buts
This ebullient documentary about trend-setting Soho hair salon Cuts also serves as a reminder of how pre-gentrification London was fertile ground for multicultural DIY creativity.

Director Sarah Lewis joined by cast Steve Brooks and James Freeman

Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records
This stylish documentary about the iconic ska, reggae and rock-steady label is a timely and wide-ranging celebration of British Jamaican working-class youth culture.

Director Nicolas Jack Davies

Shut Up and Play the Piano
Self-proclaimed musical genius Chilly Gonzales is charismatic, complicated, conflicted and bursting with talent in this invigorating documentary.

Director Philipp Jedicke

Vs.
Southend’s battle-rap scene comes to the big screen, in this sharp-tongued drama starring Connor Swindells as a troubled teenager trying to make rhyme pay.

Pachamama
Juan Antin’s authentic animated tale, about a Peruvian village during the time of the Incas, is the latest from Ernest and Celestine producer Didier Brunner.

Director Juan Antin

Experimenta

Between Two Cinemas
Ross Lipman’s new film frames an act of self-archiving within a larger, essayistic mediation on the relationship between experimental practice and independent arthouse cinema.

Director / Cinematographer / Screenwriter / Editor Ross Lipman

Cladach
A lyrical portrait of indigenous habitats and species, as well as human interactions with the sea, in and around a coastal town in northwest Scotland.

Director Margaret Salmon

Doozy
With a rich variety of techniques, this experimental documentary recreates the career of actor Paul Lynde, who played some of Hanna-Barbera’s greatest villains.

Director Richard Squires joined by cast Eric Geynes

Maria Lassnig: New York Films 1970-1980
A rare chance to see the personal, intimate and newly restored films of the internationally celebrated Austrian portrait painter Maria Lassnig, who died in 2014.

Restoring Filmmaker Hans Werner Poschauko

Second Time Around (Segunda Vez)
A gripping experimental documentary that intertwines politics, psychoanalysis and performance through the contemporary recreation of the works of Argentinian avant-garde artist Oscar Masotta.

Director Dora Garcia

Twenty-Two Hours
Bouchra Khalili’s meditation on revolutionary histories considers the poet Jean Genet’s secret 1970 visit to the United States at the invitation of the Black Panther Party.

Director Bouchra Khalili

Treasures

Sugar Cane Alley (Rue cases-nègres)
Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel and directed by Euzhan Palcy, Sugar Cane Alley is a critically acclaimed and award-winning coming-of-age story.

Director Euzhan Palcy joined by Jenny Zobel

Tunes of Glory (Segunda Vez)
British acting greats Alec Guinness and John Mills are outstanding as two officers engaged in a battle of wills in this military drama.

Guests Juliet Mills and Gareth Neame

High Tension (Sånt händer inte här)
Restored for the centenary of Ingmar Bergman’s birth, the espionage drama that he requested to remain unshown during his lifetime finally returns to the screen.

Guest Jannike Åhlund

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A new restoration provides a welcome opportunity to revisit Philip Kaufman’s acclaimed adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel – one of the most ambitious American films of the 1980s.

Guest John Bailey

None Shall Escape
A film of terrifying prescience, this is a major rediscovery: the only wartime Hollywood drama to depict the Holocaust.

Guest Grover Crisp

Some Like it Hot
Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon have a riot in cinema’s great screwball comedy of errors and cross-dressing.